The obsequies of Homoeopathy have been published so often in the medical journals of the old school, that it seems to be time to refute them and prove that Homoeopathy is very much alive and will live to see the day in the no distant future when it will be the only legal system in the practice of medicine. Truth may be long suppressed, but can never perish.
There can be but one right way, all others must be more or less wrong. Only one straight line can be drawn between two given points.
The truth of anything lies in the practical application of it, with the following real good and lasting results and Homoeopathy will stand this test pre-eminently. Tests at the bedside of patients will give convincing proof of this.
That Homoeopathy did not become at once and is not, even now the only recognized legal practice of medicine is due:
1. To the natural perversity of human nature, which is inclined to believe in follies much quicker than in actual truths. People in general require training in each direction so that they can see the truth in that line. They want to be fooled, as Barnum used to say, and it is the truth. Anti-toxine for diphtheria, anti-typhoid serum for typhoid fever, a special serum for each disease according to its name; this seems so plausible, so rational that it takes like wild fire. And yet, no greater folly could ever be imagined. The same suit of clothing in size and shape for all persons, young and old, lean or stout, with the name of Jones, the same for all the Millers, the same for all the Smiths; treating a phantom disease which has no exercise by itself, and is at first simply a dynamic derangement of the organism, widely different in each person and letting the patient linger or die.
And to give medicine for the prevention of disease is as ridiculous as the building of a bridge for a river that has never been seen, nothing known of its width, depth, force of current, and condition of bottom and shores, which may never have to be crossed, never even seen. That highly educated people and even doctors in high government office believe in this nonsense, simply proves: That education is no bar to error or folly. Strict honesty, good common sense and sound judgement, all this with great kindness of heart, like the lamented Abraham Lincoln, tower high above education. Sanitation is the only preventive of disease; this alone prevented the rectum yellow fever in Havana, Cuba, in New Orleans and Memphis.
2. The great unheard of novelty of this doctrine. It was too much for the learned doctors and professors to comprehend: That a remedy which has caused the symptoms of a disease when taken in material doses by a person in normal health, could cure that same disease presenting those symptoms when of natural origin, if the same remedy were given in very minute, infinitesimal doses, that required the giant mind of Hahnemann to evolve and grasp.
3. The very small, infinitesimal doses of the remedy, recommended, by Hahnemann, as compared with the very large, complex and powerful doses of that time, made Homoeopathy seem foolish and ridiculous. Disease was then and is today, considered a powerful monster and to require massive doses to combat.
Yet we all know that the air we inhale is more necessary to sustain life in us than food. We could not live many minutes without it. And yet it is colorless, tasteless, odorless, intangible and well nigh imponderable. This proves, at least, that quality is of vastly more importance than quantity.
Roses and lilacs have caused hay fever and asthma in persons passing even at some disease.
A growth of poison ivy had caused vesicles in cluster and erysipelas in persons passing at a long distance. The poison of the plant carried to them by the breeze blowing over the growth towards them, cannot be detected in the air in any other way. Both the latter show the power of infinitesimals in nature, as also the wonderful effect of sunlight on everything on this earth, 93,000,000 miles from its source.
4. The difficulty of the application of Homoeopathy in practice. The old school doctors who could descend so far from their lofty theories as to try Homoeopathy, gave the remedies as had been and still is their custom, for the arbitrary name of the disease, a phantom, all cases of disease of the same name were the same and identical to them, all were given the same remedy and in material doses as well. The identity and peculiarity of the patient were entirely ignored, hence he lingered or died and Homoeopathy was a failure.
To get the patient’s symptoms, then find the remedy in the Homoeopathic Materia Medica, presenting a similar group of symptoms then give that remedy in a very small minute dose to the sufferer, that was not rational and withal too much trouble. Besides the Homoeopathic Materia Medica was filled with imaginary symptoms, which they had never seen produced or cured by it. That they could not see any such results, such symptoms, because they always jumbled a large number of remedies and large amounts of each drug in one prescription, this they failed to see.
Not many years ago I had four cases of scarlet fever in quick succession.
Case 1. The surface of the skin smooth, scarlet red and burning hot to the touch. Throbbing headache, dilated pupils, throat sore and red on inner right side and tender to touch externally on that side; very irritable. Temperature, 104 degrees worse swallowing liquids. Belladonna cured.
Case 2. The discoloration of the skin was bluish, surface smooth. Body not hot to touch. Temperature, 103 1/2 degrees. Headache. Throat sore to touch on left side externally; worse swallowing saliva or empty swallowing; sensation of a lump in the throat, which goes down on swallowing but returns at once. Throat purplish internally, constricted, unable to swallow even a drop of water. A few minutes after falling asleep he awakes breathless; has to make special effort in order to breathe again; cannot bear anything tight about the neck. Lachesis cured.
Case 3. Surface of the body was a bluish discoloration, the bluish parts are raised above the other parts of the skin, due to the swelling of the cellular tissue and lymphatics. Tongue coated slight brown with a red triangular tip, the apex of the triangle pointing backward; the more he swallows the easier it becomes; burning in the throat; great restlessness; must move to get relief from the pains. Rhus tox. cured.
Case 4. A boy, aet. 10 years, presented all the symptoms of dysentery. Stools small, of mucus and blood with great tenesmus and straining continuing long after the evacuation, severe pain in abdomen. Mercurius cor. cured this in three days, when all the symptoms of the smooth scarlet-red variety of scarlet fever appeared, which was cured by Belladonna.
These cases were cured in from five to eight days so perfectly that the parents would not believe they had been ill with scarlet fever; they had not been sick enough for that; had lost apparently no weight or strength, till desquamation set in, the skin peeling off in long strips.
The remedies were given in the higher potencies. No other remedy or combination of remedies could have cured them in the same manner. Large and strong doses of the same remedies would have endangered the lives of these patients.
But nothing convinces more or better than actual personal experience, and I know of no substance more suitable for this purpose than the table salt, sodium chloride, or Natrum Muriaticum. It has been in daily use all over the world since time immemorial, as an addition to the food, never produces any ill effects unless too much had been added to the food, when it might cause great thirst. It may, therefore, be said that in the crude state it is inert, has no medicinal virtue or effect, and for this reason as also for the ease wherewith it can be prepared as a homoeopathic remedy by anyone, thus preventing any error or trickery, to be eminently suitable for this test. Hahnemann was the first one to introduce it as a remedy, proving, testing it on himself while in good health and showing its great and wonderful power to heal the sick. A number of Austrian physicians, who could not believe what Hahnemann had published regarding the effect of common table salt on the human organism, in the 30th potency, on healthy persons and to cure the sick when these symptoms presented themselves in them, formed themselves into a proving society, tested salt on themselves in the 30th potency and were convinced. It had acted better even in the 30th potency than in the lower.
To prepare it for medicinal use: One-half ounce of ordinary table salt is dissolved in an ounce and a half of boiling distilled water, filtered and allowed to crystallize by evaporating it at a temperature of 122 degree F. to free it from its associate salts. The crystals are allowed to dry on blotting paper. One part by weight of the dry crystals are dissolved in nine parts by weight of distilled water, enough to fill the bottle about one half full, cork the bottle firmly, take it in the right hand and give two or more strong blows against the left hand or some other yielding substance, so as not to injure the hand or break the bottle.
Duration of action and antidotes of the principal Homoeopathic remedies.
Homeopathy : the only scientific and actually curative system of medicine.